Margaryan Killing: Second Armenian officer recounts a night of horror in Budapest

The Armenian officer who was with Gurgen Margaryan in Budapest has described the night that ended with his friend's murder.

Captain Hayk Makuchyan returned to Yerevan on the aircraft that brought back the slain Armenian lieutenant. He and 26-year-old Margaryan had been attending an English language course in Hungary under NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

The killing of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan by an Azerbaijani colleague has raised tensions but is unlikely to lead to a breakdown of the truce between the two countries, analysts and diplomats say.

The brutality of the murder at a NATO training school in Budapest, Hungary, has shocked the public. While Armenian authorities have called on European bodies to condemn the crime, a large-scale campaign in support of the accused Azeri, Ramil Safarov, is underway in Azerbaijan.

The final results of independent Armenia 's first census have been released by the National Statistical Service.

It concluded that 3,213,011 people lived in Armenia at the time the census was conducted in October 2001. Only about 68,000 were not Armenian: 40,620 Yezidis, 14,660 Russians, 3,409 Assyrians, 1,633 Ukrainians, 1,519 Kurds, 1,176 Greeks, and 4,640 of various other nationalities.

A new Armenian church will soon open in Moscow. During his visit to Moscow Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II expressed his approval of the course of constructions.This is how Surb Khach (Saint Cross) church will look when completed.